Russian police officers patrol a deserted Red square in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow as the capital and other parts of Russia go into lockdown to curb the novel coronavirus.
Russian police officers patrol a deserted Red square in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow as the capital and other parts of Russia go into lockdown to curb the novel coronavirus. AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF

KEY POINTS

  • Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs has charged a Moldovan blogger, 22, with defamation
  • He was accused of spreading lies about the head of a nonprofit with supposed ties to Russian officials
  • The case's initiator previously reported the accused to authorities, which resulted in his arrest and deportation

Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against a Moldovan blogger who once pledged to buy drones for the Ukrainian army and previously arrested for mocking Russian soldiers.

The Moscow office of Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs drew up a case against 22-year-old TikTok personality Nikolai Lebedev, more popularly known by his moniker Nekoglai, under Article 128.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, or slander.

Lebedev was accused of defaming Ekaterina Mizulina, the head of Russia's Safe Internet League.

The non-governmental organization, which claims to be the "largest and most reputable Russian organization fighting dangerous Web content," supposedly has links with important Russian officials.

Mizulina was responsible for reporting Lebedev to police in the past over a TikTok video that featured the latter parodying a Russian soldier in a trench.

The blogger, who also once pledged to buy $100,000 worth of drones for the Ukrainian army, was detained in Moscow on Nov. 9 and charged with the violation of migration laws.

A court fined Lebedev and ordered him to be deported from Russia, independent Russian media outlet The Insider reported.

Russian security forces tortured and humiliated Lebedev following his arrest, the social media personality alleged after he was able to flee to safety.

Authorities stripped Lebedev naked, beat him, raped him with a plastic bottle, pulled out his hair and shaved his head, he claimed.

The blogger told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that he appealed to Russia's Investigative Committee and the prosecutor's office to deal with the beating.

He also blamed the abuse on Mizulina, whom he claimed "wrote a request and arranged these tortures and deportations."

The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs' case against Lebedev was brought up due to the spread of "blatant lies" and slander about the activities and work of Mizulina as well as the Safe Internet League, she said in a statement posted on Telegram.

It was also filed because of supposed death threats against Mizulina.

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"[Lebedev's actions are] an attempt to put pressure on me as a public figure in connection with my position on the fact of discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation by a number of representatives of the blogging community," she claimed, according to a Kommersant report.

Mizulina has already been summoned for questioning in the case.

A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration
Reuters